There Was a Crooked Man
| "There Was a Crooked Man" | |
|---|---|
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1842 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
"There Was a Crooked Man" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 4826.[1]
Lyrics
Original version:
- There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
- He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
- He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
- And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Origin
The rhyme was first recorded by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s and gained popularity in the early twentieth century.[2] Some say the town of Lavenham is believed to have inspired this rhyme.[3] Others maintain the poem originates from the history of King Charles I of England (1600–1649). The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie. He signed a covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The "crooked stile" in the poem was the border between England and Scotland. "They all lived together in a little crooked house" refers to the fact that the English and Scots had at last come to an agreement, despite continuing great animosity between the two peoples, who nonetheless had to live with each other due to their common border.[4]
In popular culture
- (1948) Walk a Crooked Mile is a noir crime film titled after the rhyme.
- (1953) An early Batman story involved Batman and Robin solving a mystery whose clues were based on the rhyme.
- (1967) The Crooked Man, named Count Warptwist, is the antagonist of The Wacky World of Mother Goose.
- (1994) In the Friends episode "The One With The Thumb", Phoebe misquotes the rhyme to describe Monica's new love interest Alan.
- (2011) The Crooked Man appears as the villain in the comic three-part mini series "Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others".
- (2012) The Crooked Man appears as the main antagonist of an RPG Maker Horror game titled "The Crooked Man".
- (2013) The monster in the Doctor Who episode "Hide" is known as the Crooked Man.
- (2013) The Crooked Man is the main antagonist of the Fables based Telltale Games video game The Wolf Among Us.
- (2016) The rhyme was featured in the horror film The Conjuring 2, where The Crooked Man appeared as one of the forms of the main antagonist.
- (2016) The Syfy original movie The Crooked Man, features the rhyme, and the creature himself.[5]
- (2017) V. M. Varga recites the rhyme in the third season of the television series Fargo.
- (2018) A spin-off to The Conjuring 2 features The Crooked Man as the titular antagonist.[6]
References
- ↑ "Roud Folksong Index S299349 There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- ↑ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 289.
- ↑ Taylor, Bob (12 September 2011). "Lavenham, England: Part one of four great little places". Washington Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ↑ Alchin, Linda (2013). "There was a Crooked Man". The Secret History of Nursery Rhymes (2nd ed.). Surrey, UK: Neilsen.
- ↑ "The Crooked Man: 5 Things to Know". Syfy.com. 1 October 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
- ↑ "Conjurer 2 Spinoff 'The Crooked Man' in the Works". HollywoodReporter.com. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.